Today we are going to cook delicious grilled mackerel with pesto of aromatic herbs and pine nuts. Humble mackerel with its oily juicy flesh is complemented by aromatic herbs, garlic, lemon juice and exquisite pine nuts flavor turns into a queen on your festive table. Serve with sautéed greens of your choice and the elegant restaurant-style dinner with plenty of compliments guaranteed!
I personally love mackerel in every form. My childhood memories are enlightened by the tastiest fried fish in the world that my mom used to cook and it was delicious mackerel! Do you want a no-recipe recipe? Get a whole cleaned mackerel, cut into ½ inch portion sizes crosswise, season with salt, damp in flour and fry on medium-high heat for 5 min on each side. Serve immediately. Lick your fingers. Ask for seconds. Finish before the fish even gets to cool down! 🙂 The second best form of mackerel is either hot or cold smoked ones, where the entire fish is smoked after being gutted and cleaned. This will require some BBQing which we will cover in future posts.
Grilled Mackerel
But today, we’ll work on grilling mackerel. Now, I will be forthcoming with a word of warning. Mackerel, being an oily fish, will produce plenty of smoke when grilled. So either open your vents and windows or grill it outside. Another option for this dish is to replace mackerel with another delicious fish, like a steelhead trout, which does not lack in Omega-3 department and will produce a well-received effect on your guests and family.
Our beautiful grilled mackerel recipe is distinguished from others by a blanket of pesto with which we cover the fish fillet. Based on ground pine nuts, minced mint, parsley leaves, and lemon juice, the pesto comes out thick yet refreshing for the heavy oily mackerel, giving the concert of ingredients a buoyant mood. This recipe, in my humble opinion, is an excellent festive choice for the long winter evenings during the Nativity lent.
Festive Lent?
By the way, have you ever thought about how Nativity lent could be the most festive of all others? While the Great Lent is the ultimate lent we center our yearly life around, for there is no greater joy than the Pascha night and the Resurrection of our Lord, the Nativity lent is filled with holidays and cheerful hymns throughout it services. We have the feast of
- Entrance of Theotokos which kicks off the seasonal hymns of “Christ is Born! Glorify Him!” during the matins.
- St. Nicholas feast day and the gift-giving.
- We have The Conception by Righteous Anna of the Most Holy Mother of God.
- We have two Sundays preceding the Nativity dedicated to the earthly predecessors of Jesus Christ: Sunday of Forefathers and Sunday of Fathers.
So while the nights are the longest, there are plenty of reasons to be of good cheer! The reason I raised this topic with you guys is to remind all of us the words of Apostol Paul:
Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
(1 Thessalonians. ch. 5, vs. 16-18).
Merry Christmas!
Christmas is on its way and jingle bells are in the air, let’s get our mind off our “to-do lists” and start enjoying the hustle, the gifts buying, the menu planning! Let’s remember how we loved all this when we were kids and enjoyed this magical time of the year! I really hope our grilled mackerel recipe with pesto will find a way on to your lenten table. Perhaps for Christmas eve? 😉
QUESTION: What is your favorite way to cook mackerel if you do so?
Grilled mackerel with pesto
pine nuts. Humble mackerel with its oily juicy flesh is complemented by
aromatic herbs, garlic, lemon juice and exquisite pine nuts flavor turns into a
queen on your festive table. Serve with sautéed greens of your choice and the
elegant restaurant-style dinner with plenty of compliments guaranteed!
Ingredients
- 2 mackerel or trout steaks
- ½ bunch parsley
- ½ bunch mint
- 150 gr pine nuts
- ½ lemon juice
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Prepare your ingredients
- Dice parsley. Rip off mint leaves and dice thoroughly. Pulse parsley, mint, pine nuts, a pinch of salt and pepper in a food processor. Add lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil, and pulse again. Add a splash of water for a creamier consistency if needed and pulse again. Set aside
- Put the grill pan on medium-high heat. Brush fish steaks with olive oil and when the pan is screaming hot put the fish skin side down. Do not touch and cook for 8 min or until the fish surface turns opaque 80%. Turn over and cook for 3 more minutes
- Take off the heat and cover with pesto sauce. Serve immediately!
Bon Appétit!
From Su-Chef’s corner
As an oily fish, it is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids. The flesh of mackerel spoils quickly, especially in the tropics, and can cause scombroid food poisoning. Accordingly, it should be eaten on the day of capture, unless properly refrigerated or cured. Mackerel preservation is not simple.
Happily, there are lots of mackerel-friendly wines out there, and you could pick your favorite from Muscadet, Pinot Grigio, Provence rosé, Picpoul de Pinet, Viognier or a nice Cremant (sparkling wine from France). All of these wines have good acidity, which you definitely need to cut through the oiliness of the fish.
King mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tilefish, ahi tuna, and bigeye tuna all contain high levels of mercury. Women who are pregnant or nursing or who plan to become pregnant within a year should avoid eating these fish.